economic growth? plus we will hear from the formula 1 williams boss about what it takes to win again. all that to come. this is business today. we will start this hour with news from the oil giant shell, who have just reported their latest profit numbers. third—quarter profits have come in at $6 million, better—than—expected but lower than the previous quarter because of weaker refining and oil trading. that offset higher gas sales. shell says it will now buy back a further $3.5 billion of its shares over the next three months at a similar rate to the previous quarter. cornelia meyer is an independent energy analyst, and gave us her view from riyadh. i would say shell did it again. it is the fifth quarter in a row that

it beat expectations, and when you compare its peer bp, who really did worse, shell managed to... it is only 200 million, that they are down. it is about 600 million above the consensus preview. so it did very well. i would also say, yes, refining did not do so well, but it did not do as badly as expected. it was expected refining margins would be down by about 50%, and it was not that bad, and refining is tough. let us also see the backdrop. oil prices are very volatile, lower than a year ago because volatility comes in because of the geopolitical issues mainly in the middle east, which adds and subtracts geopolitical

premium, and the other thing is that there isjust way premium, and the other thing is that there is just way too much oil on there is just way too much oil on the market and not enough demand, which makes very weak trading environment. cornelia meyer with her view on the latest shell results. as promised, let's turn to the big story in the uk, yesterday's budget from the chancellor. right now, uk households, businesses or weighing up households, businesses or weighing up the impact of those announcements by the chancellor. rachel reeves announced tax rises worth £40 billion. as promised, there were no direct rises to income tax, vat or employee national insurance, but employers will pay national insurance at higher rates and at a lower threshold, meaning more of the workforce will be pulled into that national insurance bracket, amounting to a tax bill of some £25 billion for businesses.

let's speak to the chief economist at pwc. good to have you here. the dust has settled, people have been through the fine print, and they wonder if in your view, what the chancellor says is that this is short—term pain and long—term gain. do you agree? i think that is right. i would say that i am quite sympathetic to the chancellor. she had to navigate a difficult situation with high public debt, low chronic growth, deal with the political constraints on her manifesto, but i think the budget was big, both in terms of scale and policy direction, they think they were main tests of businesses here. one was passed with respect to labour, and there were three main changes, the employment rights bill, the increasing employers national insurance contributions, and the changes to minimum wages. in isolation, these are good policies, but put together, that is quite a big change for businesses that they will have to adapt to. the second one was with respect to the state of public services and investment. the

government's plans envisage a very fast ramping up of day—to—day spending in the next couple of years, so the resources will be there for public services to take on, but i think the devil will lie in the detail, because delivery will be the main challenge of the chancellor. the third point is the reaction of financial markets, who have been cautious. i think a good comparison would be the mini budget of 2022, because that budget envisaged about 40 billion of unfunded... 0r40 billion of loosening of fiscal policy, yesterday's loosening is about 35 billion, but the reaction of financial markets is quite different, so yields are up by 20 basis points, whereas on the 2022 budget they were higher significantly than that. and of course, the question what is, and you touched on it there, is about whether people see the benefit and are prepared to offer a bit more

if they see an improvement in public services as promised. the same is very is money she is very aware that the changes will affect businesses absorbing the costs, meaning they might get smaller pay rises, therefore it is a big gamble that growth will result from these changes, because you're putting a burden on business. business could just say, hang on, we will go elsewhere?— just say, hang on, we will go elsewhere? . , ., ., ., elsewhere? that is a fair point, and what i would _ elsewhere? that is a fair point, and what i would say _ elsewhere? that is a fair point, and what i would say on _ elsewhere? that is a fair point, and what i would say on the _ elsewhere? that is a fair point, and what i would say on the growth - what i would say on the growth outlook, if you look at the numbers relative to what we expected before the budget and what the 0b r expects after the budget, they haven't really changed in average terms, so we were expecting i.6% really changed in average terms, so we were expecting 1.6% growth in average in the next five years. that number remains unchanged, but on the other hand, the public investment the chancellor is promising will build resilience in the economy, which then means that we will be less susceptible to shocks in the future, and i think the other thing that she will need to ramp up growth

rates potentially even higher than what the 0br expects is luck. so, a calm and predictable international economic backdrop would help, no major crises in the us and the eu would help the uk quite a lot. if she manages to instill confidence into the economy, household excess savings that have been ramping up since the pandemic might be ramped down, which would push up growth rates, and then the third point is you might get this positive loop developing the economy, so if you manage to get nhs waiting times down and economic inactivity rate is down, which seem to be correlated, all of a sudden, you might have half all of a sudden, you might have half a million people re—entering the workforce, which will be a boon for businesses. workforce, which will be a boon for businessm— workforce, which will be a boon for businesses. , ., , ., , businesses. yes, so many variables. good to talk — businesses. yes, so many variables. good to talk to _ businesses. yes, so many variables. good to talk to you. _ businesses. yes, so many variables. good to talk to you. thanks - businesses. yes, so many variables. good to talk to you. thanks for- good to talk to you. thanks for being with us. i'm sure we will talk again as we start to get more detail and see the impact it is having, particularly on those businesses that, as we said, might bear the brunt of that budget. we talked about shell results, but they are not the only big firm

reporting right now. updates on the biggest names in tech this week as well, among them matter and microsoft. first, microsoft reported earnings and revenues that came in ahead of expectations. that was given a big boost by ai driven demand for its cloud computing business, so what do we know? here are the details with our north american business correspondent. microsoft beat wall street estimates for quarterly revenue and profit on wednesday. its cloud computing business boosted results, a sign that the company plays like hefty investments in al are starting to pay off. sales increased i6% to over $65 billion as revenue grew 33% while the shares rose. seen as a leader among big tech peers in the ai race thanks to its early investment in chatgpt maker open ai, microsoft has wrapped up ai services across its product offerings, helping attract more customers.

alphabet�*s google has also benefited from al growth. it said on tuesday ai helped drive a 35% surge in its cloud business. so a lot of tech this week, as we said, and the owner of facebook, instagram and whatsapp, meta, has warned it will spend more on tech —related infrastructure next year. we know that is a huge investment for tech firms. however, that drove shares down 3%, despite beating expectations on wall street. here is the view of one tech expert on that reaction from investors.— reaction from investors. first, i want to start — reaction from investors. first, i want to start with _ reaction from investors. first, i want to start with what - reaction from investors. first, i want to start with what has - reaction from investors. first, i| want to start with what has been positive about meta. we can get into what people are concerned about, but meta's really done well in revenue. it increased revenue i9% in the quarter. revenue topped $40 billion. the last time that happened was in the fourth quarter of last year, and

businesses typically have their best water in the fourth quarter, when they are supported by advertising, as meta is, and to have a business over $40 billion in 03 only bodes well, i think, for q over $40 billion in 03 only bodes well, i think, for 0 four, with all the holiday advertising coming up. there are concerns. meta has said they expect to spend $40 billion this year and capital expenditures. much of that is this year